Monday, August 20, 2012

Seasons change

I LOVE kids, but I think Starbuck's where I'm currently trying to get some work done, should open a store for SAHM's and thier kids and one for the rest of us! So since I'm quite cearly NOT going to get much done here, I figured I'd update my blog until the library opens at 10AM.

So many wonderful things happening in my life, WHERE do I begin. First, after years of talking smack about the "Bougie" Black folks in metro DC who live in a county with one of the worst school systems and highest taxes in the state, we decided to move there. And I have to admit that it's something I'd been contemplating for YEARS. Why? We were spending a pretty good amount of time in this county on the weekends where we recently started to attend church, where I would study on the weekends, and where my daughter recently joined a chess club. And to be quite frank, after years of living in one of the whitest and wealthiest counties in the US, we, my daughter especially, were in desperate need of being immersed in "our" own culture. We'd also had one too many "racial" incidents as well in our old neighborhood. But the kicker for me happened 2 days into overnight Engineering camp earlier this summer, when my daughter called to tell me that she wanted to attend an HBCU (Historically Black College/University) for college based on her limited experience living in a dorm. Uh oh!!

Somewhere in having an "American Dream" I think Black folks, my self included, got "caught up" in this idea that if we did the "right" things in life, got educated at top notch schools, worked hard, that we would be rewarded with this glorius life in the suburbs, where we would live in culturally diverse neighborhoods, our kids could attend great public schools, and where we would be reasonably safe. But when I look back on our lives in this DC suburb over the past 12 years, I've questioned whether or not it was in the best social and cultural interest of my family to live here this long. And it's because I've realized that having a strong sense of culture is what's going to make or break Black folks moving foward into this global world we live in.

Moving on, lab work is going well and I'm getting used to being treated like a Post-Doc, LOL!!! I'm also beginning another programming class this Fall (having not finished my self-study course in Perl :( ), so I'm really looking foward to that. I think. I'm also still working on my research proposal in cancer health disparities and I continue to be amazed by the lack of significant research into the biological contributions to health disparities. As far as I'm concerned, the social aspects have been examined to death, and it's long since been time to incoportate that bench to bedside mantra that seems so popular these days.

Speaking of research, a funny thing happened while I was walking down the hall with my old research advisor, we ran into one of his collegues where he introduced me as a future MD/PhD student, YIKES! It's like I wasn't aware of how daunting (tranlated crazy for a middle aged Black woman) an MD/PhD program is until that exact moment! But I can't imagine doing ANYTHING else at this stage of my life!

So given that my life is full of so many wondeful and exciting changes, I decided to post this video which reminds me of where I am in my life right now as well as being one of my favorite songs from the eighties! Enjoy!